On election night, voters in Colorado, Washington and Oregon will decide whether to make marijuana legal in their states, and tax the drug. Locally, Burlington voters will vote on the same idea in an attempt to get the state legislature to move towards decriminalization

The House tried last year to get the Senate to agree to a similar bill, but the Senate instead voted to study the measure. The Senate holds a hearing on the bill Thursday.

The latest House bill would forbid industrial hemp, a botanical cousin to marijuana, from being listed as a controlled substance.

Supporters say hemp was once an important crop in the United States, but has not been grown in New Hampshire for decades. They say the plant has lower levels of THC, a principal chemical in cannabis, than marijuana and can be used for a variety of non-illicit products.